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Mawdsley, Ingrid

Hansson, Katarina

Responsible organisation

Swedish Environmental Protection Agency

2019 (English)Report (Other academic)

Abstract [en]

Based on experience gained from the implementation of the national PRTR (Pollutant Release and Transfer Register) registers parties to the Protocol on PRTRs shall consider evaluating the thresholds for capacities and pollutants listed in Annex I and II of the Protocol (Article 6 (2)). The thresholds were set aiming to cover about 90 % of industrial pollution in Europe.

This case study for the Nordic countries aims to evaluate threshold values for capacity (Annex I) and substances (Annex II) according to the Protocol on PRTRs. The evaluation has been based on available data in the countries' national environmental reporting databases, European PRTR (E-PRTR) and, for emissions to air, data from CLRTAP (Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution). A number of pollutants to air (NOX, SOX, NH3 and PM10) and to water (total nitrogen, total phosphorus, Pb and Hg) has been included in the analysis.

When comparing at European level for all included air pollutants, the results show that E-PRTR data does not capture 90% of the corresponding industrial emissions according to CLRTAP. For all pollutants, removal of threshold values for pollutants would increase the coverage in relation to CLRTAP. However, for NH3 and PM10, the difference between E-PRTR data and CLRTAP data is very large and additional measures are required. For both pollutants is it obvious that livestock is the activity where the difference between E-PRTR and CLRTAP is the largest. This indicates that the PRTR capacity threshold for livestock should be reviewed and that there is a need to evaluate the calculation methodology of the EMEP/EEA Guidebook. For PM10, it can also be noted that Annex 4 of the E-PRTR guidance document should be updated, as PM10 is not included since it is not expected to be emitted from livestock.

For emissions to water, no dataset corresponding to CLRTAP exists, therefore any comparison on European level could not be made. Consequently, comparisons for water can only be made between two datasets, data reported to the national environmental reporting databases and to E-PRTR. For Pb, removing the threshold is enough to capture 90% of the reported emissions in the national reporting databases. For the remaining substances, however, additional measures are required to increase the coverage in relation to the national databases. Wastewater treatment plants and aquaculture are the industries that have been identified as the most relevant for a review of the capacity thresholds.